Kitchen Storage

Yesterday, I was inspired by this post, written by my sister-in-law, to tidy up my kitchen cabinets.  I've found myself being rather lazy with them over the last few weeks (probably due to the fact that newborns are exhausting and when given the choice to either vacuum or organize, I'm going to pick the floors). 

Blair and I are making the switch from plastic to glass storage in our kitchen.  We're doing this little by little due to the fact that glass storage is more expensive than plastic.  We already have many, many glass quart and pint jars, and since I can't use a pressure cooker on my stove, I store dried goods and mixes in them.  Why keep the jars and bags of beans in the cabinet separately when you can combine them and save on space?

Dried beans and lentils are easily distinguishable in the jars, but biscuit mix and pancake mix look very much the same.  I used to label the flats of the lids with a Sharpie (because that's how my mother does it), but Sharpie doesn't come off.  About a year ago, I ordered a chalk pen from Amazon.  Originally, I just used it on my chalkboards, but I discovered that it doesn't erase well.  I noticed on the package that it can be used on glass, so I started labeling the tops of my lids with it.  It wipes off easily with a little rubbing, and I can use it on the jars and containers I store in the freezer.  

I keep the soaking and cooking directions for beans and lentils written in this cookbook my Mimi bought me as a child.  By doing this, I don't have to keep the packages.  Less clutter.

For items like couscous and quinoa, which are tiny little pellets (and I make a huge mess with every time), instead of using a canning ring and flat I use...

The green lids from parmesan cheese containers!  I save them.  All of them.  You never know when they might come in handy.  From quinoa to letting your three-year-old put pipe cleaners through them, they are great to have around.

Simple.  Glass.  Storage.

Organization achieved.

The Great Dilemma of 2012

As I'm sure you all know, we recently expanded our family.  I've mentioned my obsession with storage and organization several times here, and that's what The Great Dilemma of 2012 was.  Where were we going to put all of the clothes and blankets and "stuff" that come along with a new little person?  Well, the natural answer to that would seem to be "In the closet in her room."  However, when that closet looks like this

that's not entirely possible.  To remedy this, I tried putting her clothes in the hall closet, but since that's where Blair keeps his shoes and I keep the vacuum cleaner, it just doesn't make for a great clothes closet. 

Blair and I have long planned on building a window seat in the den.  We needed more seating in there, not to mention the added benefit of all that storage space.  So, Blair got busy.  He got a good bit of it done, and then we unexpectedly had a baby three weeks early.  

And then it wouldn't quit raining.  And snowing.  Oh, and did I mention that he has a full-time job, two part-time jobs, and sits on our county arts council?  He's a wee bit busy.  

Well, after much building and many, many days, all of his hard work has paid off!!

Those two lids lift up to reveal a ton of storage, and the stuff that was hanging out in Kathrynne's closet now resides in there.  And, as great as that is, there's still plenty of space of more stuff!  And, the sweet lady's clothes are now hanging in her own closet!

We plan on adding some better storage in her closet eventually, but for now this works great.

We are so excited about how this room is coming together.  It's so much brighter in the den with the white window seats and fire place.  Painting Noah's table and chairs made a huge difference, too.  We have one more big project up our sleeves for the den coming in the next couple of months before we call this room complete, but didn't he do a great job?

Hiding is Easier than Building

Let's talk about storage.  Again.  Here's what I've been doing for storage in the office.

The table helps keep it all in one location, but doesn't really do much for keeping it out of sight.  Enter the need for a table skirt.  Except that I didn't really want to sew anything and didn't have any fabric that I looooved and I didn't want to buy anything.  So, I pulled out a 1 yard remnant I'd had for a few years, measured it, pinned it with safety pins, and attached it to the table with velcro.

Looks good, right?  Well, that lasted all of about six hours.  When I went to bed, I noticed my fabric in a heap on the floor.

That didn't take long.  So much for the Velcro.  Fortunately we have a staple gun, so three quick clicks later (two days after the original collapse, to be exact), and we were back in business.

Not a perfect solution, especially seeing as to how I don't particularly care for the fabric, but it definitely cuts the visual clutter.  Floor-to-ceiling shelves are eventually in order for this room, but for now free works just fine.

Storage

There's now more of it!!  Mr. Handyman and I spent Saturday installing closet systems.  If you recall from this post that was one of the items around the house we wanted to accomplish this year, and despite having some major (and painful) dental work done just two days earlier, my darling did the work anyway.  He's a real-life He-Man, I tell ya.  We got two systems at a major discount from Lowe's, and they went into Little Man's closet and the one in our room.  

 Please ignore the sweet potatoes off to the side.

Our room before:

Little Man's room before:

Measuring and leveling.  Please do make sure you use a level.  The last thing you want is all of your clothes falling in the floor because your rods and shelves are installed at an incline.

Mid-work clutter:

Little Man's after:

Our room after:

 Yes, I do have canned produce in the floor of my closet.  Don't you?

It is amazing how much more storage space there is with just this one little change.  We do still want to get the attractive storage boxes that are sold to go with the shelves, but those can wait for now.  Mr. Chadwick did a great job of getting all of the support rods in place.  The most difficult part of the process was for me to decide where to put the shelves and hanging rods.  I was able to hang all of those myself, and since no one else in the house really cares where things like that are put, they were most agreeable about the finished products.  It's not even the middle of January yet, and we're already getting things checked off our list.  Here's to a productive and organized year!!

A Little Rearranging

And I bet none of you are surprised by the fact that I moved something.  This has been Little Man's toy cabinet in the den for a while now.  Notice anything awkward about it?

Mmm hmmm.  That's right.  It's located directly in front of the door we use to enter and leave the house.  Makes for a difficult time coming and going.  I've been thinking about relocating it for a while, and yesterday I finally got around to actually doing it.  I pulled all of the CDs out of the far cabinet on the other wall and put the toys over there.  Now, that's much better.

The Issue of Storage

Houses built in the early- to mid-1900s have something missing in them that today's houses have.  Storage. Unlike us "modern" Americans who feel the need to surround ourselves with stuff, previous generations made do with the necessities.  They didn't need houses that had equal living/storage square footage.  Blair and I take pride in the fact that we are not "stuff" people.  However, as I've been rearranging and remodeling the house, I've noticed that for people who don't have much stuff, we have ALOT of stuff!  And very little storage.  We have no attic and no basement.  As for closets, we have two "double door" clothing closets, two "single door" closets (one of which is a coat closet in the hall), and two small bathroom closets.

                                                           Look at all of that wasted space!

 Here is my solution to the problem:

                     Super-sexy plastic storage tubs.  Just like any college student married person with a child, right?

Not very attractive, right?  We plan on putting a larger storage building out back one day, which will help some, but in the meantime, I'm stuck looking at all of my "stuff".  So, I have begun going through it, one box/one closet at a time, and getting rid some of the mountains piles.  To further add to our dilemma, we live in a three-bedroom house.  The room pictured above will one day need to be used as another bedroom.  Where in the world am I going to put all of that?

I am an organization junkie.  If it can be organized, I'm there.  I like neatness (despite what my parents may tell you).  Now, I'm not as OCD about it as my brother, but I do like a neatly-ordered shelving unit. So, I have put myself to the task of finding the best way to organize the shelves I currently have.  Which, sadly for Blair, means he will once again never know where anything is.  Ahem...

I have also set myself to the massive task of working through my incredible yarn and fabric junkpile stash.  I have a good start on this as I am making twelve hats for my mother's Operation Christmas Child boxes.  But, come on people, there's a great deal more there.  I have yet to decide what to do with the rest of yarn and fabric.  Which is probably why I have so much sitting around to begin with.